Snippets reflecting life and thoughts of a writer who has published a fourth novel set in an English village. First, Gypsies Stop tHere, then No Gypsies Served, followed by Shades of Appley Green. Now it's back to the Sixties with Secrets in Appley Green.

Monday, 12 January 2015

I am one of the contributors to a Lifestyle Magazine called LoveaHappyEnding and, if you follow me on Twitter, you will doubtless have come across it!

This year, off to a bright new start, I shall be offering
some insights into the English Village, talking to key people who, in this day
and age, really do put the life into ‘village life’.A community-based lifestyle is something to
which many people aspire, that friendly, interconnected feel-good factor, but
how often is it found?

Historically, villagers had to maintain a communal outlook
for successful management of the land – the main source of their livelihood. It
was life itself. In common field agriculture, for example, villages had to
agree on which field would be left fallow and folk needed to respect each
other’s boundaries, with animals kept within agreed limits.

A mediaeval village was not just a collection of houses; it
was a living, breathing community, regulated by the court of the manor, where
the ‘lord’ would assert his rights. Times of serfdom, bondsmen or freemen are
long gone, thankfully!

Skipping a few centuries, what then holds a village together
today? Even in the last 50 or 100 years villages have radically changed with
locals being outpriced by ‘second-homers’ and outsiders with money wanting a
place in the country. Where you live is often not where you work, unless you earn a living online or as a self-employed
artisan of some kind. Then there is the decline of church congregations, once a
cohesive force; mechanisation of agriculture; closure of village-schools and
the younger generation moving out to towns and cities for excitement and
employment, leaving behind an ageing population, whether locals or retired
newcomers.

The cliché now is that, even in a village, neighbours may
not know or even recognise each other. On the positive side, I will be looking
at village people who prove to be the modern lynchpins of ‘village life’, an idyll that
many of us cling to or yearn for. Perhaps you
are one of those movers and shakers!